By Juliet Aguiar DUGBARTEY, Takoradi
Betterland Ghana Limited (BGL) a mining company located at Gwira Banso in the Nzema area of the Western Region is expected to be in operation by the first quarter of 2025.
Currently, the company is at the pre-entry stage and was granted mining lease of 10 years in May 2023, on 62 square kilometer area by the Minerals Commission. Also clearance, has also been given by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Chief Executive Officer of BGL, Isaac Osei has said.
According to him, the Draw Forest Reserve in the Nzema Area, is Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA) and remains the only unharmed forest in the Gwira Area.
“Since it is a forest reserve, we had to be properly scrutinized by the Forestry Commission before we were given Initial Entry Permit” Project Manager, Caleb Nsarful explained.
The mining lease, has an expiration of 10 years, currently he explained that one year has been spent in occurring Forest Entry Permit.
“Hopefully, we’ve gotten the Initial Permit for only six months so, it means we have nine years left to proceed into mining” he said.
For Pre-Entry Stage, Mr. Nsarful said ‘the company has a proper data on pre-existing information that the place is good, we still have to narrow down as a geological department to confirm the reserve that indeed, there is gold in economical quantity”.
“We not going to mine all the 62 square kilometer if we find high grade source and we are able to centre it, possibly, we are going to adapt the open cast mining system” he clarified.
